


Below the Surface

by Oakwyrm



Category: Thrilling Intent (Web Series)
Genre: Exploring Nature, Gen, Girl's night, Swimming, TI SPP 1, Thrilling Intent Same Prompt Party 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 11:20:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9605588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oakwyrm/pseuds/Oakwyrm
Summary: On a normal night, Ashe would probably have just spent some time by the side of the lake before going to sleep herself. This is not a normal night. It's a pleasant night, certainly, but not a normal one.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For the first Same Prompt Party! I had some major anxiety around even starting to write this but I think it turned out ok in the end.

The night had settled peacefully around the Shrouded Isles, the bar had closed, people had gone to get their rest, and Ashe had retreated to a large clearing in the forest she was particularly fond of. The reason for this was the deep, dark lake in the middle of it.

It was cold, most often bitterly so, and she couldn't see the bottom. Sometimes she wondered if there even _was_ a bottom. But of course there had to be one. She was admittedly curious as to what could be down there. She had tried diving for it sometimes but she could never get far enough, which truly said something about just how deep it had to be.

She stared in quiet thought down into her reflection, though in the darkness of the night all she could really see was an ominous shadow with eerie, glowing eyes. The lake also seemed to capture the starlight from the sky above her to draw it into its depths. She felt like she was gazing into and endless void, but one close enough for her to touch. It was a little disconcerting but the serene beauty of it more than made up for that fact.

She reached out slowly and gently touched the surface of the water, watching the resulting ripple as it travelled out and died down.

Just as the surface calmed again the peaceful stillness of the night forest was abruptly broken by the distinct noise of people travelling through the underbrush. Several people, probably. Or one really, really clumsy person. Possibly with four or more legs. It was a distinct possibility, living where she did.

She didn't have to wonder very long. Out into the clearing walked Firi, followed shortly by Inien and Batty. Ashe just stared at them for a moment. Suffice it to say, she was not used to being interrupted here. Or even to finding another living being, save for the forest animals, in the area.

“Oh, there you are, Ashe!” Firi smiled, taking a hold of Inien's wrist and half dragging her along. To which Inien responded by grabbing Batty's shoulder in an 'If I'm going down you're going down with me' sort of motion.

Batty, not expecting this, didn't have time to adjust herself and instead lost her balance, knocking Inien over just as Firi was mid-step. She quickly let go of Inien's arm but that didn't stop her from also falling over, completing the people pile. Ashe tried to hide her laugh in a cough as she got to her feet.

“Are you OK?” she asked, reaching a hand towards Firi.

“I'm fine.” She took the offered hand and Ashe pulled her to her feet with ease. Inien grumbled and got to her feet, dusting herself off. Batty was still on the ground, facing downward, head in the moss.

“Batty?” Ashe crouched down next to her and poked her shoulder. Batty's only proper reaction was to roll away slightly before rolling back into place. Ashe glanced up at Firi. She shrugged.

Ashe looked back down to Batty and with little problem lifted her to her feet. They stared at each other for a long, silent moment before seemingly coming to an understanding. Ashe set Batty down on the ground and Batty promptly sat back down again, pulling out and beginning to tend to a switch-blade.

“You were looking for me?” Ashe asked, turning back to Firi and Inien. Firi nodded, suddenly snapping back to the matter of hand.

“Do you want to go down there?” She pointed to the lake. Ashe blinked.

“I mean sure I'm curious but I can't exactly breathe under water?”

Inien made an annoyed sound.

“That's why _I'm_ here,” she said, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. Ashe glared at her. Inien rolled her eyes.

“She has a spell that'll let us breathe underwater!” Firi grinned, a definite shine in her eyes. Ashe glanced back at Batty, only to jump somewhat when she found her standing up and a lot closer than anticipated. The underlying menace was, as always, somewhat unnerving.

“That... sounds really cool, actually!” Ashe met Firi's grin with her own.

“Good!” Firi clapped her hands before turning to Inien. “You, sit down.” Inien frowned.

“What?”

“If we're going under water we have to do something about your hair,” Firi's tone was very matter-of-fact and left little room for argument. So Inien sat down with minimal grumbling and turned her back to Firi, who pulled out a brush and set to work.

It took a long time. Ashe had to wonder when Inien had last brushed her hair. Not that she was really one to judge, she mostly left hers alone to do its own thing. Though she could better afford to do so, having much shorter hair than Inien. She did remember a time when she had had hair similar in length to Inien's, and leaving it to tangle had never been a good idea. Though she'd still done it and then just... suffered the consequences later.

Firi did eventually get Inien's hair sorted, though how she had the patience to do so was beyond Ashe. Once it was done Firi set about quickly putting Inien's hair up in a tight and functional braid, so it wouldn't get in the way once they were all under water.

“And done!” Firi rose quickly, taking a few steps back to take a last critical look at her work. Inien stood up and shook her head slightly.

“We ready to go or what?” she asked, running a hand curiously over her hair. Batty was standing by the edge of the lake, tapping her foot somewhat impatiently. Ashe got the distinct feeling that soon enough she'd dive in regardless of ability to breathe.

“Yeah lets go.” Ashe walked up to the side of the lake. While her back was turned she felt something, definitely a hand, she could also with certainty guess whose hand, shove her back. Pretty hard at that. A strange, somewhat disconcerting feeling ran through her entire body as she flailed for a moment before falling into the water.

It was as cold as ever and she would have gasped had she not been under water. She resurfaced quickly to glare at Inien, her hair flopping down over her eyes.

“What the hell?” she demanded. Inien glanced back at her and grinned before lightly touching Batty and Firi's shoulders. Her hands glowed light blue for a second and the two of them jumped into the lake following Ashe.

“I just cast the spell on you,” Inien replied, looking deplorably innocent as she tapped her own chest, casting the spell on herself before quickly diving in following everyone else.

It was now that Ashe noticed the cold of the water wasn't bothering her nearly as much as it should be. Batty was laying on her back, floating calmly while staring up at the sky. Firi was poking Batty's leg to make her slowly spin in a circle. She didn't seem to mind all that much. Or at all, really.

Ashe looked down into the water and with minimal hesitation she started to dive. Taking that first breath was nerve-racking to say the least. But nothing happened. Aside from the distinctly odd feeling of definitely breathing air while being 100% under water. Slowly she opened her eyes and found herself staring down into a much more well-lit deep than she was used to.

She exhaled softly, diving deeper. Her eyes scanned the bottom, sloping slowly downwards before cutting off abruptly and vanishing into the deep. She glanced back at the others, finding Firi not far behind. Batty was still pretty close to the surface but following none the less. Inien was swimming next to Firi.

“Can we-?” Ashe stopped herself as her own actions confirmed the answer to her question. Inien drew level with her.

“Were you about to ask if we can talk under water?” she asked, her tone unbearably smug. Ashe sent her a glare but didn't answer. Inien laughed.

Firi took that moment to grab a hold of Inien's shoulder to pull herself forwards.

Ashe looked back up to Batty, who was closing in quickly and very soon had caught up with the rest of the group. Ashe posed a question at her in the vein of “are you coming with us”. Batty shrugged, rolling around in the water so she was laying on her back again. Ashe eyed her for a moment before deciding that if Batty wanted to come along, she would.

She turned and continued diving. The water got colder but she didn't seem to mind it all too much, in fact she didn't mind at all. She registered the temperature change, as well as the slowly changing pressure, but neither seemed to affect her. She had to admit Inien had definitely been underselling this spell, it did a whole lot more than just letting her breathe.

She looked up towards the surface but it had vanished from sight. Not even a glimmer in the distance. Though that was perhaps to be expected, it was very late after all. She turned her eyes back downwards, reaching out a hand to gently touch the almost sheer wall of rock beside her. She looked to Inien, who was beside her, Firi still holding onto her.

“This doesn't look natural to me,” Ashe said. Just a casual observation. But really the drop off seemed just a little too perfect to have been cut out by nature.

“I don't think it is.” Firi ran a finger down the wall thoughtfully.

“Oh no definitely not,” Inien agreed with no hesitation what so ever. “This was definitely magic.”

“Who or what do you think made them?” Ashe asked.

“Kyl'il might know!” Firi said before Inien could give whatever sarcastic reply it was she was planning on.

Batty took this moment to swim over to Ashe and poke her shoulder. She gestured further downwards. Ashe frowned. Apparently that wasn't the response Batty had been looking for as she decided now was a great time to gently shove Ashe further downwards.

She was about to question why when the answer became abundantly clear. Just a little bit further down the walls that for the most part formed the lake, save for that one side with a proper bank, opened up. The cave was dark, of course, but something in the magic that Inien had woven in and around her made it easier to parse.

Small fish, unaccustomed to such large lifeforms in their home, scattered and swam from her quickly. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Firi's hand move as if to retrieve her sketchbook before she remembered that she didn't have it.

In the centre of this place, which almost looked more like a room than a cave, was a large rock. All around it in beautiful patterns ran markings. None that Ashe recognized but there was a definite elegance to how they were arranged. She and Inien swam forwards at the same time, almost knocking into each other as they approached the rock to study the markings.

Even upon closer inspection Ashe found the individual, sharper patterns, some kind of script probably, completely unfamiliar. Inien whistled low.

“Holy heck these are old,” she said. Ashe raised an eyebrow.

“Why aren't they corroded?” she asked. A genuine question, not a challenge for Inien's statement. She knew well enough when someone was talking about something they actually knew shit about and she wasn't about to disrespect that.

“Oh that's easy, whoever put them here made sure they weren't vanishing any time soon.” Inien lightly touched one of the marks. “Too bad I can't read them.” she kicked off the lake floor and floated up almost to the ceiling.

“I wish I could make a rubbing of this I'm sure there's someone on the islands who knows how to read this...” Firi made her way to Ashe's side, looking at the stone. Ashe placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Yes, well, unfortunately paper isn't the most durable thing when it comes to water.” Firi nodded.

Ashe moved on from the strange stone to the rest of the room, eyes soon settling on the mouth of a tunnel. Batty was moving around it, inspecting its walls. Ashe swam forwards and watched her for a moment. She stopped and turned to Ashe, looking at her for a moment before starting down the tunnel.

Ashe followed after with little hesitation. It was darker here, sometimes she had to feel her way forwards to stop herself from swimming head first into a wall. The tunnel seemed to be really just one long, snaking passage. Ashe felt more than saw Inien and Firi behind her. She brushed past Batty at some point, taking the lead.

She truly didn't know how long they spent in that darkness but eventually she began to see a glow coming from up ahead. Not one of moonlight or early dawn. A strange, almost mesmerising blue glow. Moments later she realised what it was.

As the water drew away and she reached such a place where she could stand on the floor of the tunnel and have it only reach her waist, dots of glowing blue began to decorate the ceiling, casting her and her friends in an eerie light. Some kind of bioluminecent plant life had made its home in the roof of this cave tunnel and created a different kind of cosmos.

They truly did look almost like stars. Ashe lost her words for a moment as she stared up at the ceiling above her.

Slowly she walked up the slight slope until her feet were on dry land again. After taking a quick moment to dry off to the best of her ability she looked back to her friends. Firi had let herself fall back into the water, staring up at the ceiling as she floated. Batty reached out to carefully touch the wall, startling some of what Ashe had thought were just more of the plants out of their hiding places.

Small dots of light danced around them, looking almost like fireflies. If fireflies were a light blue in colour.

Inien held out her hand and a dot landed on her palm. She drew it closer, illuminating her face further in that eerie lighting which had now turned more beautiful than creepy. One of the dots landed on Ashe's nose.

She blinked, automatically crossing her eyes to stare at it. A tiny creature sat there, staring at her curiously. It did actually resemble a firefly sort of. There were certainly similarities. It reached out one of its tiny legs to pat her nose before taking off and flying back to the wall.

Daring to breathe again she laughed delightedly. Slowly the blue fireflies began to retreat back to their hiding places in the walls. Firi was practically bouncing. Batty had sat down in the shallows, staring up at the ceiling above her.

Ashe took another step forwards, continuing down the tunnel. For a while the plant life continued to light her way, casting it's soft glow on the walls around her. Firi's footsteps echoed behind her, Inien's too if she had to guess.

The plant life stopped when she began to see another light in the distance. She hurried her steps somewhat until she came to the cave's opening. She exhaled softly in wonder.

The wind blew hard here, tugging at her clothes and whipping around the stone face of the cliff. She was high up, looking out from a window in a steep cliff-side shore. The sea stretched out before her. She rather purposely didn't look down. She knew she was high up. So she focused instead on the sky and the horizon.

“Oh... wow,” Firi's voice was quiet. There was a grandeur to this place. They were so small here, looking out over what seemed to them an endless expanse of sea and the even more endless void of stars. The cliff itself also lent to this.

Inien leaned against the wall, for once lost for words.

They remained there, listening to the wind howl around the cliffs and the waves crash against them even as night began to fade and the first light of dawn began to colour the sky. Batty joined them eventually, settling herself next to Ashe.

The comfortable silence eventually faded into a sleeping silence. As the island began to wake and stir above them, they fell into a quiet slumber. They would probably regret falling asleep in such a place when they woke up but for that moment they were a little too tired to honestly care.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly who knows who or what used to live down there. Not me, certainly. It's just one of those mysteries from ancient times. Kyl'il might know. But I certainly don't.


End file.
